The Grim Angel
by DozenRoses
Summary: Hovering somberly, hovering sinisterly, hovering dutifully, hovering patiently. Calling the names of those whose time has ended, so others can begin.
1. Prelude

_The Grim Angel_

**December 23****rd**

That was the day my mother died. My mother would tell me things: things like how she had seen the after life and found that it was a wonderful place. Being a child, it scared me to hear my mother talk like that, but then again, she knew she had been dying for a long time. Was she trying to cheer me up? Maybe console me before she went on her way?

I remember days when she would talk to herself. I would peek into her room and see her conversing. With her being the only person in the room, it worried me. But I couldn't help but feel there was another presence in the room besides her. A dark force. A malignant power.

I was scared.

**December 24th**

My little sister and I held hands while they lowered our mother into the ground. It was such a pretty day out for such a sad circumstance. People cried and cried. My sister only looked around, confused as to why so many people were there watching our mother be buried. I remember her eyebrows furrowing in confusion and her tugging on my sleeve. She spoke to me and said, "Mother can't play with us if she's down there in that hole, right? Are we playing hide and seek? Is she counting to ten?" I remember ignoring her, I didn't know what to say to that.

Then something felt weird.

Something strange was going on.

I saw my mother standing beside me. She knelt down and gave me such a warm smile. I couldn't help but start crying.

I remember her touching my shoulder with such a reassuring grip.

I remember her cold lips touching my ears, her cool breath whispering to me.

I remember her vanishing from my side, like she was never there.

Tears continued to pour out of my eyes, but if people saw my face at that time, they would know there were no emotions on my face. I was deadpanned. The tears that came out of my eyes- I had no way to explain what I was feeling. So many emotions at once. But maybe the tears were because of what was spoken to me.

I'll see you soon, she said.

**December 25****th**

I had a dream.

Mother was in it.

She was telling me all of the wonderful things that was happening in her after life. I wish I remembered what she was telling me back then. Her words seemed so important.

There was no Christmas celebration that year. Father was too upset, as was everyone else in the household. Mother was usually putting up decorations around the house, smiling and laughing, she was able to get everyone into the holiday cheer.

We missed her.

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**March 2****nd**

We had finally obtained a rhythm after the passing of my mother.

Everyone was relatively happy. My mother was missed greatly but we couldn't dwell on our pain, we still had lives to live.

That night, I had another dream about my mother.

But she wasn't there.

Or at least, I didn't feel her there.

She was there talking to me, it was the face of the person I had loved so much, but her voice...

The voice could not have belonged to my mother, it couldn't be her who was speaking to me now.

The person spoke to me.

"You are not my mother," I remembered saying.

"I am not your mother," it had replied.

Black smoke rose from every opening in her body. Ears, eyes, mouth, and nose, the smoke had shot out from everywhere gathering into a menacing form.

What a sad figure that stood before me. The smoke had formed what I had thought to be a traditional monk garb. The robe fluttered around gently. Smoke came from underneath it, but it didn't move far from the figure.

We stared at each other.

I saw its red eyes.

Its red eyes that only seemed to stare at me, or into.

It said no words to me, its robe brushing up against my skin. Slowly, I was being pulled into its robe. A pale skeletal hand reached out towards me. I didn't realize I was so close to it. Its hand brushed up against my face, past my cheek, right down to my chin, slowly lifting it up.

I screamed at what I didn't see.

I remembered screaming myself awake.

People hovered over me, pampering, asking the same questions over and over.

I couldn't speak.

I couldn't think. What was happening to me? I didn't understand why.

I was twelve when this happened.

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**December 27th **

It was my birthday that day. I was thirteen.

It had been one year since my mother had died.

Almost one year since the dreams had stopped.

But I remembered.

I could never forget what was told to me that day. That day the creature had appeared to me in my dream. I could never forget what it had said to me.

In five years, on this day, I would die.

And there was nothing I could do about it.


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

* * *

Today is my birthday.

I'm eighteen today.

And... I awoke to a rainy sky.

How depressing. I sighed and got ready to start the day. I barely had anytime to put on my shirt when my sister came and greeted me.

"Happy birthday Hinata!" Running with her arms open wide, she hugged me tightly. I chuckled at her antics, taking one of my hands and tousling her hair with it. It may have been raining, but she just brightened my day.

"Thank you very much. Waking up and hearing you tell me this will be the highlight of my day," I dipped my head lower and kissed her on her hair. What a sweet child she was. "Where's Father? Is he up yet?"

She shook her head saying, "He's still asleep in his study. I peeked in on him this morning." She released her hold on me and sat on my bed. Legs swinging vigorously over the edge, I noticed that she wasn't dressed for school yet. Frowning, I gave her a stern look and pointed towards the door. She hopped off my bed, giggling and saying she'd get dressed as fast as she could.

Smiling, I shook my head and closed the door behind her.

Exhausted, I fell back on my bed and laughed out loudly.

This day was getting better and better.

Filled with new vigor and excitement about what the day had in store for me, I jumped off my bed and quickly got dressed. I only had a couple of weeks left to finish high school. Then graduation day would finally be upon us! I was so excited. I had kept a 4.0 grade point average ever since I was young, and I planned on keeping it through my college years as well.

I looked in the mirror and did a little twirl.

I felt like a million dollars, possibly more.

I went downstairs and was greeted by my father, my uncle, and my cousin.

"There's my little princess! Come and give Uncle Hizashi a hug. Your day can't start without one of these. I give legendary hugs you know," I smiled at his comment, bum rushing him straight into a hug. "Whoa now, I'm not as young as I look. Take it easy on this old handsome man." I just hugged him tighter in response. I loved my uncle very much. He was kind, gentle, and caring. He had all of the qualities my father was lacking, but no matter what my father didn't have in his personality, I still loved him.

I released my uncle and looked at my cousin, Neji.

Quiet as usual. But, a smile had adorned his face. Not better than his usual smirk though. He had nodded in my direction and sat at the dining room table.

Last, but certainly not least, was father, who had smiled more so than usual today.

"Hello daughter. How are you?" He asked me.

"I'm great daddy. Today will be wonderful. Is that breakfast you're cooking?"

"Maybe."

"It is! Haha. Smells edible." Uncle Hizashi let out a loud bellow at that.

"What humor my niece has. Brother, she got you good." He slapped my father on his back and laughed some more. My father's face had become red with embarrassment. Sighing loudly, he moved away from the kitchen, dragging his feet a little, sitting right next to my cousin at the dining room table.

I shook my head and grinned a little. Cooking was out of the ordinary for him, I was always cooking for everyone, but for him to do something like this? Well... I just _had_ to tease him. With his head in his hand, father closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Oh daddy," Walking away from Uncle Hizashi's side, I stepped over towards my father, leaning down to kiss him on his temple. "Thanks a lot!"

His eyes flickered open, looking at me through his peripheral vision. My father and I- our relationship was not always this good. After mother had died, he wouldn't look at me at all.

I remember him saying I looked like mother a lot, so he had a hard time stomaching a conversation with me. So because of that, he had spent more time with Hanabi, ignoring me. I used to be so jealous. I used to get so angry at myself for being that way. But then I thought it must have been hard for my father, having to see your dead wife every time you looked at your eldest daughter's face. But we simply only got better with time.

Speaking of which- "I thought you were asleep father." Not a question, but simply an observation.

"I told Hanabi to tell you that while I finished cooking. I wanted to surprise with breakfast. But instead of going into my study to wake me up, like I thought you would, you came down here instead."

"Well, I figured nothing could help make a person wake up more than coffee. So, I came down here to fix you some actually." I said as a matter of fact. Hiashi sighed contently, getting up to finish the breakfast he was making for her. "Hanabi! Get down here or you won't eat!" Father tried once more. "Hanabi?" He gestured to Neji, who immediately understood, going up the stairs to seek out his little cousin.

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"This just in, tragedy has struck the peaceful town known as Konoha. We have our on-scene reporter live at the crime scene."

"I'm standing at the front gate of the Hyuugas domain, where I am told that the whole family may have been murdered. Now they haven't locate any survivors yet and- ah! There seems to be four people coming out of the house with some of the investigators. As far as I can tell, the family has only sustained minor injuries, none of them seems to be too badly hurt."

Murdered?

Me?

"Sir a word! What's your name son?"

"Chusen."

Chusen? Who is that?

"Is your family alright?"

"...Hinata. Dead. Gone. She go bye-bye."

"HINATA! MY DAUGHTER!"

"SISTER! MY SISTER! HINATAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Why her?"

"Dead."

"Gone."

"Poor child."

"Her birthday was today."

"She was eighteen today."

"She'll never celebrate her birthday again."

"A tragedy."

"A bright young future, now gone."

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

"Let's keep this family in our prayers."

I'm dead?

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"Hinata. Hinata, wake up." Someone was touching my cheek. My eyes fluttered open to see Neji looking at me.

"Neji? You're dead too?"

"You heard the radio broadcast? Well, I guess there's no nice way of putting it. You kicked the bucket."

"Why are you so calm about this? We're dead! Dead! DEAD! DEAD! How can you sit here and act like it's nothing?"

"I've been dead for a while." The tears that were about to come out my eyes never came.

"What? What do you mean you've been dead for awhile?"

"Ever noticed how the people in our family never once said my name? No one called me Neji. People had always called me-"

"Chusen..."

Neji nodded and continued. "The person you knew while you were growing up was me, however, it wasn't me. You see, three years after I had died my mother gave birth to another son. Chusen. I took hold of his body at the tender age of seven, Hanabi was six, and you were twelve, and I had been residing in there ever since. When people saw me they saw Chusen. When you saw me, you saw me and no one else."

"Why was I-"

"The only one to see me? Good question. You have always been spiritually adept."

"When did you die? How?"

"Let's see ugh, your father and Hizashi, my father, let's just say the whole Hyuuga family were more on the illegal side of life, but when I was born, they were trying to get their lives in order. Someone wanted Hiashi dead, Hizashi offered to take his place. I went instead. And quite obviously I died. I was eighteen, you were two." He talked about his death so casually. "I've been dead for thirteen years." I whimpered quietly. He reached for me and I slapped his hand away.

"Don't! Don't you dare touch me." I wanted so badly to cry, but I couldn't. I couldn't even force any tears out. Why won't these tears of mine come out? I felt him reach for me again. He sat near me and pulled me into his chest. I didn't want to look at him so I buried my face in his arm.

"I remember when I was still alive you would cry so much. You were the biggest cry baby ever. When you were just a baby, and your mother couldn't handle you, I would pull you out of your crib and tell you to quit your whining. And you did. But then after that, you started giving people mean looks. It was, quite honestly, the cutest thing ever." I grabbed his arm tightly.

"You look like you want to cry right now, but you can't. You're dead. Your tear glands are no longer operational. I know it's hard Hinata, but I'm here. Trust me, you'll get through this. You'll be ok. So... quit your whining." I nodded into his arm. What he was asking of me was so hard, how could I ever cope? But then again, he's by my side.

Maybe I can get through this.

Things just had to get better. They had too.

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"There's one thing you haven't explained to me. Why were you inside your little brother?"

"I cannot tell you."

"What? You can tell me everything else but not that? That's a little strange."

"Drop it Hinata." His voice was stern, and it shut me up immediately.

"O-ok" I chuckled inwardly about my stutter. I started stuttering when I was-

"Twelve..."

"Hmm?" Neji looked at me curiously. I payed him no mind, concentrating on things I was trying to remember.

"Neji, do you remember when I started stuttering?"

"Yeah, it was right after you had that dream." Dream? I don't remember any dream...?

"Dream?"

A quiet laugh was heard in the distance.

"He's here." I shuddered. The laugh was getting closer and closer.

"I'm here to retrieve my package." Smoke gathered in front of us to form a figure. Dressed with the traditional clothes of a monk, with a hood covering its head, and those eyes. Those red eyes. Suddenly I remembered everything.

The dreams.

Those eyes.

"Neji you-"

"It's not what you think Hinata."

"On my eighteenth birthday, I was supposed to die. Neji... you murdered me!"

"Hinata I-"

"Murderer! You killed me you son of a bitch. I hate you!"

The thing that had smoke bellowing from everywhere just looked at us. Staring. The thing sighed and pulled its hood off. I gasped loudly at what I saw.

The thing looked human.

But those eyes remained that of a monster's.

It frowned at us, running its skeletal hand through its spiky blonde hair.

"I have a job to do. No time for your bullshit."

The thing moved closer to me, but I moved two steps back.

"RUN HINATA!" Neji screamed at me.

Run he says? Run? Should I trust him? How could I, when he could quite possibly my murderer? But then again, running did sound pretty nice. I dashed to the left. I didn't take in my surroundings, I just ran.

"You cannot escape. You are inside me." What? Inside? I didn't think about what he said until I started noticing my surroundings. Smoke was covering everything. It was all pitch black, he had covered the whole area and we were never the wiser. He had fooled me into thinking I had a chance. He let me run away, so he could show me my folly. I lost the strength in my legs. I fell to my knees. No longer able to do anything anymore.

The creature sighed and opened his cloak.

I looked at it and frowned, "What are you?"

"I am the reaper of souls."

And with that he wrapped me in his cloak, greeting me with darkness.

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**みなさん、こんにちは。****Just a quick hello ^.^ I'm glad people are taking time out of their busy schedule to read this, it brings me such joy. ****どうもありがとうございます。****Please read and review! ****よろしくおねがいします。**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

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As soon as I was released, I thrashed about. My eyes were cloaked in darkness, I couldn't see a thing. So I did the next best thing, I held no punches back and I swung at everything that tried to touch my skin.

"Calm down!"

Calm down? Calm down?!

I swung at the sound of the voice, trying to hit it with all my might.

"I said STOP! I will lift the darkness from your eyes, but you have to be still and be calm. I mean it, or I will gag you, blind you, and tie you up."

I nodded. I'll be calm alright. As soon as I was able to see, I willed my legs to move and I ran for it. I heard a chilling sigh behind me, but I didn't bother to stop and take in the sound. Suddenly, my feet were off the ground and my face was falling towards it. I winced in pain as my face hit the ground. I looked at my feet and noticed they were bound.

Damn it all.

"I told you to be still."

I saw those red eyes leering at me, disapproving of what I had done.

Before I could even mutter a sound, an object was being placed inside of my mouth, my hands were bound and I was thrown over what seemed to be a shoulder. I shifted, turned, wriggled, and struggled with all my might but it ended futilely. What a very strong grip the creature possessed. We traveled a short distance until the thing dropped me unceremoniously on the ground. I winced and sucked in a little breath so I wouldn't cry out in pain.

"How nice of you to retrieve our little. . . . package."

"Nice of you indeed. I wouldn't mind judging her in my be- ouch!"

"Shut up. We have a job to do. Unbind her."

"As you wish."

The three new voices had startled me. I was unsure of what to do if I needed to take all four of them on. A tiny whimper left my mouth as I felt the bindings being lifted from my body. . . and my body being lifted itself.

"Extra precaution. She does not follow directions."

"Fine by me. Bring her here please. Oh, and do be a dear and release the darkness from her eyes."

"As you wish."

As the darkness slowly left my eyes I began to take in my surroundings. My eyes widened in horror as I looked about the room. . . it was my room.

"M-my room!" I sobbed loudly, but no tears fell against my cheeks and no tears fell from my eyes. I began to wail and thrash around in the air.

"SHUT UP!" A binding appeared around my mouth. I looked around to see who had done it but no one except the creature and me were in the room.

"You'll see us soon enough. Currently we are assessing your life and whatnot. Is this the day that Miss Hyuuga died?"

"It is. Seems as if she was the only one who perished. How disappointing."

"Protocol _insists _we start from when she was born till she died. Must you do this every time? Now from the beginning please."

The room changed from my room to a fairly large hospital room.

"We need you to push ma'am!"

"Push darling!"

"The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck!"

"Prepare for a c-section. Ready the anesthesia, we're going to put her under."

"Boooooriiiiiiing. Can we speed this process up a bit? We can't afford to be backed up in work again like during World War II."

A deep sigh was heard. "Fine."

My life quite quickly flashed before my eyes. I was relieved that I didn't have to relive some moments.

It only took roughly around a couple of minutes for them to reach the end of my life- literally.

"Ok, back where we started."

"Wait a second. Is that the Neji boy?"

"Looks to be that way."

"Why is he in the mortal realm?"

"Be quiet you old fools."

As I watched the day that I died replay before me, I couldn't help but notice something was amiss. I began noticing things I had never seen before. There was a black mist hovering above my sister's head as she came in to greet me that morning.

"Is that what I think-"

"A possession spell...but who? Neji?"

Yellow eyes began to peek out from the mist, leering at my face. I shuddered and wriggled around a bit. There was something sinister in those eyes. Unpleasant and evil.

"Fast forward a bit..."

We were now at the part Neji had separated from us and went to go find Hanabi.

"Follow him."

The room changed to Neji and Hanabi staring face to face at each other.

"Leave her at once!"

"Look who's talking, possessing your own brother's body."

"This is different and you know it! Get out of her body now!"

"Or what? Doing harm to me will only inflict pain on her. Will you risk it my dear Neji? I'm only here for one thing, you can have this child after I'm done with the other one."

The other one? Was it speaking about me?

"You cannot do this! I won't let you kill her."

"Won't let me? Me? ME?! Surely, you jest. Oh how silly and stupid you have become over the years."

The room began to churn and shake violently.

"What's going on? This has never happened before!"

"I can see something happening in the room!" The last thing the room showed us before it completely stopped working was the black mist in the form of a hand, grabbing hold of me and taking my soul from my body.

"VICTORY. IS. MIIIIINE!"

The room sputtered and died.

"Bring me the Book of Dates!"

"As you wish." A huge book was held upright for all to see. "Find date of birth and date of passing. Hinata Hyuuga." The book flipped through what seemed to be millions of pages before settling on one page. "Blah, blah, blah December twenty-seventh- oh! Here it is, August twenty-eighth. Age is. . . . . 93. You're waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early for your time sweet cheeks.

"What do we do with her then. We cannot judge her accordingly if she has died before her time."

"Indeed."

Three beings began to slowly appear on three thrones. They looked dangerous. The one in the middle began to speak first. It was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and honey brown eyes. Her outfit seemed to be resembling the Eighties fashion from the western side of the world.

"It's Eighties Month. We get bored too. . . . Anyway, disregard our current state of dress please. Down to business. You can let her down now."

"As you wish."

Is that the only thing it could say? It placed me gently on my two feet and stood there like a deer caught in some headlights.

"I am Tsunade. To my right, Jiraiya. To my left, Orochimaru. We are the three responsible for creating order in your world. We established law. And thus as a reward, after our souls had left our mortal bodies that returned to the dust, we were placed here to judge those who have died. We deem them worthy of Paradiso, Heaven. Or deem them unworthy and condemn to the depths of Inferno, Hell. Purgatorio is a place fit for those on the brink of being worthy of Paradiso and those almost fit to rot in Inferno. We shall send you to reside with the Grims. They are in a special place, unlike the seven wonders of Paradiso, the seven terraces of Inferno, and the endless fields of Purgatorio."

"We should send her to Inferno, for all the work she's making us do." The voice came from the one on the left, a creepy looking man with the eyes of a snake, but beautiful long black hair.

"Now, now. Leave the poor little darling alone. She's scared and lost and cute. Give her a break man." This time it was the old perverted man on the right. He had uncanny white hair, red markings on his face, a mole on the left side of his nose, but he was definitely handsome.

"Silence! The Village of the Grims, that is where you'll be staying. Dismissed."

"Yes." The creature bowed and turned, but before we could leave the Jiraiya person called out. "Introduce yourself to her. Introductions are in order, are they not? Hood off please." I could see the creature reluctantly obeying him, hood off it stared at me grudgingly.

"I am Naruto. Pleased to make your acquaintance." The thing-

"Ah-ah-ah! Your thoughts may not be known to him, but they are known to us. Naruto is not a thing, nor is he a creature. He is a servant. A good one who follows orders. He was once like us. A mortal. However, unlike some people, he died as a child, he never got to see eighteen as you did. Do not blame him for the predicament that you are in, he was only doing his job as a Grim Reaper. Mind your manners now; where Naruto may be patient others will not. You must behave yourself while you are here with us, who knows how long you might be down here with us."

"Yes, we wouldn't _want _you to end up in Inferno because of your mouth but, if you _do_ happen to find yourself in that predicament, you will _never_ be able to return. Once you are there, you stay there." Orochimaru spoke in a menacing and hateful voice, I could tell that he really didn't like me.

I bowed and followed after the Grim Reaper. I would really have to watch my tongue now, I didn't want to end up in Inferno.

I tried to make conversation with the G- Naruto. . . his name is Naruto.

"Yes, that is my name."

I covered my mouth, I didn't realize I had been speaking aloud.

He kept his eyes forward and didn't say anything else. I watched his back sway back and forth. He had such a broad back. If his hands were skeletal, I wonder if the rest of him is.

"Y-you look like a human-"

"I was once human, it makes sense."

"But y-your hands. . ."

"Just for show. In the world above we Grim Reapers are known for being skeletal figures, so to keep up images, we began to adapt to humans'. . . taste. I can replace these hands for my regular ones, if it is to your distaste." He shook his hands twice and they returned to normal human hands.

"How does the rest of your body look then?" Hinata asked curiously.

"That, I cannot show you." He spoke with finality.

I wasn't able to hide my disappointment. There was so many things I wanted to know about this place, about the Grim Reapers, about everything! Curiosity had ultimately killed my fear; I was no longer afraid of what I was going through.

But what the room had showed us was something unexpected.

The black mist, everything. . . clearly someone or some_thing _wantedme dead.

But why?

Little did I know that I was going to regret ever wanting to know at all.

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I began to notice that after we started walking I was slowly beginning to feel drowsy. An overwhelming feeling of being tired at that.

I could barely move forward anymore.

"For your benefit, a sleeping draft has been put into the air for you. Only the Three Judges, Grim Reapers and the High One are allowed passage to our village. If a soul were to try- well, a soul has never tried so I cannot say what would happen to you if I left you in the state you are in now. So for yours and my sake, you will be asleep and wrapped inside my cloak."

If I were capable of giving him an astonishing look I would have but the muscles in my face were just as lax as the rest of me.

"You will be in the Village soon."

Soon was right.

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I awoke to loud sounds and heavy breathing.

"Ugh. . ."

I tossed around on what seemed to feel like a comforter.

The breathing wouldn't stop though.

The breathing only got closer, closer.

Like it was directly near my face. . .

I swung at the thing near my face, apparently hitting it dead-on cause what I hear next was a screech that was painfully loud and full of pain. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

I bolted upright and looked for the source.

"Wench, I'll have you _**dead**_ for this."

A talking fox?

Now I really _have_ seen it all.

"Kyuubi? Has she awoken?"

"Oh, she's awake alright. . . awake and ready to die." The fox whispered the last part.

The familiar voice came in and nodded his head in acknowledgment towards me.

"I must apologize for his behavior, his job is to eat souls, and you were just a little delicacy lying in the open waiting for him to eat. I do apologize, I knew better and I should have kept you in a safer place. For that, I am truly sorry."

"She _**HIT**_ me! Don't just ignore that boy."

"So cute. . ." They duo looked at me curiously when I said that. I could see a tinge of red of the fox's nose. I must have whacked him pretty hard there. I picked up the fox and held him against my chest. He stiffened up in confusion, and that gave me my opening. I kissed him gently on his nose and the fox practically melted in my arms.

"Ok, ok, ok. I guess I don't _have_ to eat you."

"I'm really sorry for hitting you on the nose. You really are just the cutest thing ever."

"Cute?! I am the great Kyuubi! Humans _tremble_ before my power. I am the eater of souls, I am the greatest demon ever! Yet a mere pathetic soul like you calls me cute?! I'll kill you dead, _bitch_."

"You're handsome and you're cute!" I held Kyuubi close to my chest and I felt him try to get closer to me.

". . . You can call me whatever you want girly. . ."

"Enough, Kyuubi. Leave her breasts alone." Naruto had finally spoken up and he snatched Kyuubi away from me.

"Don't worry kid, you're always first on my list. I'll kill you before I kill her."

"Back where you belong." Naruto quickly placed Kyuubi inside of his cloak, disappearing inside of the darkness.

"Who is that creature?" I asked curiously, I was genuinely amused by their exchanged.

"One of the nine great demons that once roamed the Mortal World. He is the nine-tailed demon fox Kyuubi. You would do well to remember that he is a demon, not a cute animal from the World of the Living. His true form is something much worse, something of pure terror. Mortals would die from fright just by looking upon him."

"Does he belong to you?"

"In a sense."

"Care to explain?" I asked. He seemed reluctant to answer me.

"I am not sure it is wise to inform you on such a matter, but nevertheless you can do no harm here. It may be safe to tell you." He sat down and I scooted closer to him to hear his tale. "Kyuubi and the eight other powerful demons ate souls. It was ordained by the Higher that they would roam the Earth and eat the souls of the dead. They were the Grim Reapers of their time. I do not know the details, but something changed within the demons, it caused them to run rampant. They began killing the living and for that, they were punished. The others were sealed, but Kyuubi proved to be too strong. So he was sealed within a newborn baby. At a very young age, the child was scorned and hated by almost everyone."

"Where were the child's parents? They couldn't have just let him get bullied like that!"

"Dead. And the child died protecting the very place that hated him. Let's continue this another time. I have duties to attend to." Naruto swiftly stood up and left the room without even saying a goodbye. My heart ached for the poor child. How could people be so cruel and hate a child? Children couldn't do anything about the predicaments they were in, they were helpless! I sighed and shook my head.

What a dreadful story that was.

X

X

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"Your plan might actually work."

"Thank you. It would have never worked if you would not have put your trust in me."

"I am glad I did. You're such a devious woman, doing that to your own- why, you're almost as vile as I am. How I adore your maliciousness. It's absolutely befitting of you."

"Thank you Master. You are too kind to me."

"I am a bit confused, however. What do you plan on doing with her soul? It seems awfully ordinary to me. Whatever is it for?"

"Hyuugas have always been attuned to the supernaturals. She is no different. Without a soul, her body is incapable of functioning. And that way we can-"

"Ahhhhh! I see! Absolutely marvelous! I am really looking forward to what you have planned for me. With your plan I can seize everything. It will all be mine."

"It shall be yours Master. I will see too it."

"Of course you will my little puppet. Of course you will."

* * *

みさん，おひさしぶりですね！Hey guys, it's been a while hasn't it? I've been gone for a while. School has started back up and it's been hectic preparing for school. But it's been exciting.

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( O_O)

Your Japanese is great Yomitoru! However, I did not say 'Pleased to meet you'. Douzo yoroshiku is what you're thinking of. What I said was yoroshiku onegaishimasu, which could mean 'Pleased to meet you' as well, but there is a slight difference. When I was referring to the reviews, yoroshiku onegaishimasu meant 'Treat me kindly' or 'Thanks in advance.' ^.^ If anyone else has any questions about Japanese feel free to ask me. I'm not a pro myself, but I'll be willing to help anyone who is willing to learn.

又ね! See you soon!


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